Ready
by pinkdigi
Summary: The groom is not allowed to see the bride until the ceremony. [HG oneshot, postHBP]


**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.**

**This is the final installment of a series of HG one-shots. If you haven't read the other two, get to it! _The Morning After _and _Following the Rules _can be found in my profile.**

**Harry and Ginny got engaged in December, and this takes place in the following August.**

**Ready  
**……………………………………………………………

'Harry,' says Ginny. 'I have to go.'

'No, you don't,' he says.

'I do,' she mumbles halfheartedly against his lips. 'It's midnight.'

Harry pulls away and checks the clock. 'No,' he says. 'It's not midnight for another few minutes.'

'It will be,' she says, 'by the time I get dressed.' He kisses her neck and she sighs, tilting her head slightly. 'Come on,' she says weakly. 'You can't do this to me.'

'If you want to go so badly, you're free to go.'

'I can't, unless you get off me,' she says, her fingers finding their way into his hair. She doesn't _really _want to leave, and Harry knows it, because he is still kissing her.

Logically, though, she knows that this isn't smart. She knows that she should leave before the clock strikes midnight, because _the groom is not allowed to see the bride until the ceremony_. But maybe that's just rubbish. She isn't even sure if she really buys into any of it.

Still … is she willing to risk it?

'I really have to leave,' she says, and then forces herself to push him off of her. 'Hermione's expecting me. And Ron's on his way over to make sure you don't get cold feet at the last second and take off to America.' She smiles teasingly at him.

Harry grins. 'Never,' he says. 'If anything, I'd go to Australia.' Ginny rolls her eyes. She knows he is only kidding, but it's still unnerving. This is her wedding and she has been planning this day since she was a small girl. She loves Harry, but if he screws it up for her … he'll never be completely out of the doghouse. 'Or,' he continues, kissing her lightly, 'how about Italy? France? I've always wanted to see Canada, you know.'

'Hysterical,' says Ginny dryly. 'Even though you appear to be a flight risk … I need to go.'

She sits up and Harry sighs. 'Remind me to have a word with Hermione,' he says. 'She's the one who put all these silly superstitions in your head, isn't she?'

Ginny shrugs. 'You don't know that it's silly. Maybe it's real.'

'Maybe it's nonsense.'

'Hey,' she says. 'You have to admit that I've been pretty good about all this. It's awfully stressful planning a wedding … I think I've kept my insanity to a minimum.'

'I suppose you have.'

'I could be a lot worse, you know,' Ginny says contemplatively. 'I could be like Hermione. You remember the days leading up to her wedding, don't you? She nearly caught her death standing outside in the rain the night before! We were still sharing her flat and I had to go outside and drag her back in.'

Harry furrows his brow. 'Why was she standing outside in the rain?'

Ginny sighs. 'Because,' she says. 'It's good luck if it rains on your wedding day. She got married in July, so chances were that it wasn't going to. She went outside at midnight and started doing a … a rain dance.'

'_Hermione_?' asks Harry.

Ginny nods. 'And when it actually started to rain, she sort of just stood there until I came out and got her. She was drenched. Insane, that one was. Weddings are stressful for women.'

'This wedding is stressful for me, too!' says Harry.

'Of course it is,' she says. She rolls her eyes inwardly because every time she would ask him his opinion on things such as flowers or bridesmaid dresses or food for the reception, Harry would simply shrug and say, _Whatever you want, Ginny_.

But she, her mum and Hermione planned this entire wedding and nothing is going to ruin it, so she keeps her mouth shut because the last thing she needs is to get into a fight with Harry just before the big day.

'Still, can't you just forget about this one little thing? I know you want to stay with me tonight.'

'You've known for weeks that I didn't plan on staying. I thought you were okay with it.'

'I was,' he says seriously. 'But that was then. You're here now, all naked and gorgeous … can you blame me?'

He reaches out to touch her but she swats his hand away. 'Keep it in your trousers, Potter.'

'I'm not wearing any,' he says, raising his eyebrows suggestively.

'Harry,' she says sternly. 'You can't _possibly _be ready to go again.'

'You want to bet?'

Ginny leans forward and kisses him softly. She pulls away before he has the chance to deepen it and smirks at him.

'Save it for the honeymoon,' she tells him. She gets off the bed and is in the midst of getting dressed when she hears the clock chime midnight. '_Shite_!' she yells, and then spins around to look at Harry. She can't keep the smile off her face when she sees that he has the pillow over his face.

'I'm not looking,' he says in a muffled tone.

'Thank you,' Ginny says, spinning around so she can say the same. She dresses and, grabbing her wand, Transfigures a sock into a blindfold. With her eyes closed, she goes back over to the bed. 'Keep those eyes shut,' she commands, and then reaches out a hand to grasp the pillow. She pulls it away and hopes that Harry isn't looking, because she now realizes that she _does _buy into the silly wedding superstitions, and is fairly nervous that she is violating one just by being in the same room with him now.

'What're you going to do with me, Weasley?' he asks, sounding amused and expectant.

'Nothing,' she says honestly.

'Damn,' says Harry.

She blindly feels around for his eyes and carefully puts the blindfold on him. 'Can you see?' she asks.

She hears him sigh. 'No.'

'You're sure you aren't lying to me?'

'Positive.'

Satisfied, she leans forward and tries to find his lips with her own, to kiss him goodbye. She hears him laugh when she misses and kisses something that feels like his nose. She eventually finds his lips and a tingle goes up her spine. His arms wrap around her and she realizes that, with her eyes shut, her other senses are far more attuned.

She loses the feeling of his mouth against hers for a moment. 'Don't you have to go?' Harry asks.

They kiss again and she can feel the material of the blindfold rubbing against her cheeks, then down her face as Harry's lips go from her mouth to her neck.

'I don't see why we can't stay like this for a few more minutes,' he says.

'Mm … okay,' she says, giving in.

_Damn him_, she thinks, but is powerless to do anything but let him suck on her pulse point.

'If I have a love bite on my neck for my wedding day, I'm going to kill you,' she grinds out.

She can feel Harry's grin. 'As long as you marry me first.'

'We'll see,' Ginny says. She drags her fingernails across his bare chest and – _oh_, she can feel how much he wants her. She needs to get out of here. She wrenches herself out of his grasp and feels him reaching out blindly for her.

'This isn't fair,' says Harry. 'I don't know where you went.'

Ginny turns her back to him and opens her eyes. 'I'm leaving,' she says. 'Get dressed, unless you want Ron to walk in on you like this.'

Harry chuckles. 'I'll miss you,' he says, so softly that she is tempted to break the rules and stay.

Instead, she says, 'I'll miss you, too. I love you.'

'Love you more,' he says. She grabs her overnight bag and Disapparates.

……………………………………………………………

'_What took you so long_?' demands Hermione, and Ginny cringes. Hermione has always been intimidating, but now, so pregnant that she is about to burst, Ginny has never been more frightened.

'I'm not _that _late.'

'Late enough,' says Hermione. She studies Ginny for a moment. 'You broke the rules and saw each other after midnight!' She points accusingly at Ginny.

'We didn't!' says Ginny. She smiles fondly and looks down at her clasped hands. 'We, er … there was a blindfold involved.'

'Kinky,' says Ron, coming into the room. 'Hi, Gin.'

'Hi.'

Ron goes to say something else but Hermione scowls and says, 'Ginny, I can't believe you! A wedding is _not _something you can do half-arsed!'

Ginny knows that Hermione's hormones are going crazy and that she isn't _really_ this irritated that Ginny is late by a few minutes. Ginny also knows that it isn't a good idea to laugh in Hermione's face. Still, she can't keep the giggle from escaping her lips.

'It isn't funny!' says Hermione.

'You said arse!' Ginny laughs and Ron joins in, too. Even though Hermione is an adult, she still doesn't like it when people use curse words. Ginny is both incredibly shocked and pleased.

'Please tell me,' says Hermione, 'that Harry didn't see you after midnight.'

'I already told you –'

'You're sure, though? Not even for a second?'

Ginny isn't all that sure, but she nods just the same and tells Hermione that she's completely positive. A part of her is scared and a little annoyed with the way Hermione is acting, but another, larger part of her loves that Hermione takes marriage and old superstitions so seriously. It's incredibly grounding to watch someone like _Hermione _go nutters over something like a wedding.

'Good,' says Hermione. She takes a deep breath. 'Okay. Okay. Good. That's … everything's fine, then.' She smiles brightly and waddles into the kitchen. 'Can I get you some dinner?'

Ginny, temporarily halted by Hermione's sudden change in mood, shakes her head. 'It's midnight,' she says. 'Wasn't dinner several hours ago?'

'It was,' says Ron. 'Lately, though, it's always dinner around here. She's always hungry,' he says, grinning. 'Something about pregnancy, I guess. Honestly, she eats more than _I _do now.'

Hermione shrugs and starts to dig through the fridge.

'Right, well,' says Ron. 'I have to go.' He kisses both of them goodbye and then he is gone, leaving Ginny alone with crazy, hormonal Hermione.

Hermione is saying something through a mouth of food (honestly, Ginny is starting to fear pregnancy, because Hermione is acting as though she's had a full lobotomy), but Ginny isn't paying that much attention. Gods, she sounds like she did the night before her own wedding. Ginny is tempted to ask her _who _is the one getting married, Hermione or _her_, but she doesn't.

Hermione stops talking and gasps, clutching her round tummy.

Ginny rushes over to her. 'Hermione,' she says, suddenly feeling like the world is going to cave in on top of her. Hermione is nearly at her due date and … _shite_, she's going into labour, isn't she?

She can imagine the domino-effect in her head: she'll have to bring Hermione to the hospital and will be up all night waiting for the baby to arrive … _if _the baby makes it in time for the wedding, she'll have to be running on no sleep … she will look like a wreck and no amount of makeup and Glamour Charms will cover it … Harry will take one look at her and run for America or Australia or _wherever_ … Ron will chase after Harry to kill him, leaving Hermione and the baby all alone … Ginny and Hermione won't be able to look at each other because they both ruined each other's marriages …

'It'll be okay,' Hermione says sincerely. 'The baby's just kicking.' She smiles widely. 'Come here, you can feel it if you put your hand right here.'

She grabs Ginny's hand and places it to the left of her bellybutton. Ginny is startled when she feels a light tapping from the inside of Hermione's womb.

'Oh … Hermione,' she gushes, 'you … you've got a little person inside of you!'

Hermione laughs. 'I know,' she says.

Ginny _know_, logically, that there is a baby inside of Hermione. But … _wow_. That baby is going to be out here, with them, soon. Hermione and Ron are going to be parents. She is going to be an _aunt_.

That thought used to make her feel too old, but now, she just feels like an adult. She is growing up. She is getting _married _tomorrow. And, one day, she'll have kids of her own.

'Are you okay?' asks Hermione. 'You look like you're going to be sick.'

Ginny smiles. 'No … I just … can't believe that you're going to be someone's _mum_.'

'It's scary, isn't it?' she asks.

'Scary is that Ron's going to be a _dad_,' says Ginny. 'You know that this kid's going to be up on a broom before he or she can even talk, right?'

Hermione closes her eyes briefly. 'Don't let me think about that,' she says. 'I'm hoping our kids will inherit my fear of heights. Don't tell Ron that, though.'

Ginny laughs and then checks the clock. 'What time do we have to be up tomorrow?'

'Six-thirty,' Hermione says, finishing her food and putting the dish away. 'We have to be at The Burrow for eight and at the hall for eleven.' She glances at the clock. 'But it's well past midnight. Off to bed with you, now.'

Ginny smiles grudgingly. 'Yes, _Mum_.'

……………………………………………………………

'Ouch! Mum, you're killing me!'

'I'm barely touching you, Ginny,' says Mrs Weasley. 'I have to put the veil in your hair. I'm being gentle.'

'It feels like you're pulling my hair out by the roots,' Ginny mutters.

'Honestly,' her mother says, sighing under her breath. 'You know, you're nearly worse than Hermione was.'

'Hey!' cries Hermione. 'I wasn't _that _bad at my wedding.'

'Of course you weren't, dear,' says Mrs Weasley, though she sounds as though she is merely humouring her daughter-in-law.

'Just like you aren't _that _pregnant right now,' Ginny says, and Mrs Weasley lets out a soft laugh before re-doubling her efforts on Ginny's hair.

Hermione smiles grudgingly and puts the finishing touches on Ginny's makeup. When she is done, she moves out of the way and lets Ginny examine herself in the mirror. 'How does it look?' Hermione asks, sounding worried that she did a poor job.

Ginny is not vain or self-involved in any way. Still, she knows that she looks beautiful now, in her dress, with her hair piled high on top of her head and her makeup subtly done, accentuating her features.

'Is it too much? I can fix it if –'

'No,' says Ginny. 'I … it looks good. Doesn't it?'

Hermione and Mrs Weasley nod furiously. 'You look beautiful, Ginny,' says Mrs Weasley. She dabs her eyes and sniffs dramatically before turning back to Ginny's hair and doing a few Charms to keep it in place. 'This reminds me of my wedding day,' she reminisces. 'I had a nice dress that my mum had made for me. And it was white, of course, because your father and I waited until after we were married to –'

'_Mum_!' Ginny cries.

'I'm just saying,' says Mrs Weasley. 'It was a choice I made. It was one that I was hoping you would have made, too …'

'_Please_, let's not talk about this now,' Ginny pleads. She can feel herself blushing. Hermione's cheeks are pink, too.

'Fine,' says Mrs Weasley.

There is a knock on the door.

'Ginny?' she hears Ron call through the door. 'Are you in there?'

'Yeah,' says Ginny.

'Is everyone decent?'

'Yeah.'

'I'm coming in, then,' says Ron, opening the door to the dressing room and walking in. He stops in his tracks when he sees her. 'Oh. Ginny. You look … bloody hell. Harry won't know what hit him.'

'Thanks,' Ginny says, looking down at herself. 'How is Harry? I mean, is he … okay?'

'Yeah,' Ron says. 'Jane told me to find you and tell you that we're ready to go.'

Ginny's heart is thudding in her chest. 'R-ready?' she asks. 'As in … _ready_?'

'Exactly,' says Ron, smiling at her. 'C'mon. You _are_ ready, aren't you?'

'I – yeah,' says Ginny. 'Mum?'

'Yes, we're ready.'

Hermione smiles and pulls at her dress, trying to smooth it over her huge bump. 'I feel so fat,' Hermione says, fixing her hair in the mirror.

'You look great,' says Ron.

'Shut up,' says Hermione. 'You did this to me.' Ron looks alarmed for a moment before Hermione smiles and kisses him. 'Come on. We have to get moving.'

Ginny looks around and wonders if anyone else can hear her heart beating. Why is she so nervous? Is this normal? Or is it a sign that she shouldn't be marrying Harry?

Okay, she is being ridiculous now.

'Let's go,' Ginny says, suddenly very anxious to get to the ceremony part. She needs to see Harry. She might go crazy if she has to wait another second.

They make their way down the corridor, where Jane, the planner and organizer, is trying to get everyone lined up. Ron goes through a door, to the front of the line, because he has to walk up after Harry.

'Is everything okay?' Hermione asks, apparently noting that Ginny is having a complete and total _breakdown_.

'No,' Ginny whispers. 'I – I don't think I'll be able to do this … I'm not ready …'

'_What_?'

'Ginny Weasley, you are _not _leaving Harry at the altar –'

'Of course not!' says Ginny. 'I don't mean that! I just – I can't do this whole ceremony thing. I spent _forever _dreaming about this and now … I planned everything, but what if something goes wrong? What if I forget my vows? What if Fred and George have some stupid prank prepared? Why can't I just walk out there and be _married_? Why do I have to do a ton of things in front of a ton of people that will make me look like a complete idiot if I screw up? There are reporters out there! Oh, I'm going to trip. I just know it.'

'I remember,' says Mrs Weasley, 'when –'

'Mum,' says Ginny. 'I'm losing it. This isn't the time for a story about when you married Dad.'

'It isn't about my wedding,' says Mrs Weasley softly. 'I remember when you were five years old, Bill was telling you all about Harry Potter and you looked at me and told me that you were going to marry him one day.'

Ginny grins. 'I really said that?' she asks, only slightly aware that she was a pathetic, pathetic child if this story is true.

'You sure did,' her mum says. 'Not only that, but you _believed _it, too.' She reaches out and straightens Ginny's veil out slightly. 'This isn't about those people watching you. It's about you and Harry.'

These words seem to coax something inside of her, because Ginny suddenly feels very comfortable with the thought that this is just her and Harry. She can handle Harry, and she can certainly handle herself. If she doesn't look at the reporters, maybe she'll be okay.

Ginny looks up and is shocked to see that the line has dwindled down to nothing. Hermione kisses Ginny on the cheek and then starts walking, leaving just Ginny, Mrs Weasley and Mr Weasley standing there.

'You look beautiful,' says Mr Weasley.

'Thank you, Dad.'

The music starts playing. 'Are you ready?'

'Definitely,' she says.

They walk outside and Ginny breathes in the fresh air, glad that she and Harry decided on an outdoor wedding. She isn't feeling so claustrophobic now that she's outside.

Her eyes scan the area and – shite, why did she and Harry agree to letting a reporter from the _Daily Prophet _cover their wedding? The man is taking pictures of her and, _oh, no_, they are going to be on the _front page_! If she trips now, the whole bloody world will know.

She sees a cluster of redheads sitting in the front row and smiles. She can do this.

Then she looks up and sees Harry. Her brain forgets how to make her feet move and she knows that she is standing there staring at him like an idiot, but it's sort of okay, because he's looking at her with the same expression.

Her father whispers her name and she snaps out of it. She does not look at the guests as she walks – concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other as she walks – toward the altar, but, instead, she locks her eyes with Harry. Yes, she can do this.

When they reach Harry, Ginny's parents kiss her on the cheek and sit down with all of her brothers, except Ron, who is standing beside Harry and grinning at her. Hermione is beside Ginny, smiling widely, and she really is the cutest pregnant girl Ginny's ever seen.

'Hi,' Harry says. He sounds nervous and anxious and_ so _happy.

'Hi,' she says, knowing she sounds the same way.

'You look amazing.'

'So do you.'

'I feel like a git in this outfit.'

Ginny laughs and relaxes. It isn't so scary, now that she is with him.

'Ready?' he asks.

She nods. 'Ready.'

……………………………………………………………

**Well, this is the _end_, and I mean it this time. No more continuations for this story. I hope you all enjoyed the three parts to this!**

**Don't forget to leave me a review.**


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